


Candy in the Neighborhood

by Badgermole



Series: Colors [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Autism, Candy, Colors, Costumes, Crayons, Gen, Halloween, Stars, dad!logan, kid!virgil, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22336276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badgermole/pseuds/Badgermole
Summary: Retro: It’s Halloween. The Princes and Sanders head out trick or treating.(Just read it, Nike Swoosh)
Series: Colors [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1184909
Comments: 23
Kudos: 217





	Candy in the Neighborhood

**Author's Note:**

> Note: This takes place back between a Day at the Park and A Leaf at Thanksgiving.

“Trick or treat!” Roman sang as he burst through the front door. “Smell my feet. Give me something good to eat.”

Roman was already dressed up in a new prince costume. A shiny gold plastic crow dropped slightly down his head, a size too big. Translucent plastic gems dotted each of the crown’s peaks. His outstretched hand gripped a long sword. The blade itself was rather bland but the hilt was adorned with smaller gems tying it to the crown. A small tassel swished back and forth hanging from the bottom of the grip. It gave off an air of a ceremonial weapon rather than one for battle, but looped to his hip was a battle worthy shirt sword.

Logan shook his head. He and Virgil had gone to watch Roman’s Halloween parade so it was no surprise to him how… extravagant his costume was. Roman wasn’t one to do anything without giving it 110%.

“No more candy Roman!” Thomas pulled his son away from the candy bowl next to the door.

Roman stabbed his father a few times in protest and managed to run up the stairs with a fistful of candy. Thomas collapsed onto the couch rubbing his forehead.

“He already broke into our bowl.” Thomas groaned. As much as he tried to pace his son each year, Roman was an energetic monster into the middle of November. Normally he loved that his son would eat anything, but any type of candy… not so much. 

“You really should be the house that gives out raisins.” Logan chuckled. Virgil liked to collect the different candies but only ate a few of them. Mostly, he loved opening all the bags of M&M’s to sort and eating the purple Nerds.

“I would never hear the end of that.” Thomas shook his head and ate his own piece of stolen candy.

“Hey, at least Roman had the decency to say trick or treat.” Logan gave a quick head tilt toward the candy.

“Trick or treat,” Thomas mumbled, his mouth full of chocolate.

“Thank you.” Logan pulled his own secret mini Hersey bar from his pocket.

“Peasants, let’s get to work.” Roman appeared at the base of the stairs holding all of the art supplies he could carry. Virgil carefully placed the stack of purple cardstock he was carrying onto the coffee table.

“Excuse me? Peasants?” Thomas raised his eyebrows looking a bit miffed. He pointed to his Steven Universe shirt for emphasis.

Roman rolled his whole head, “Citizens.”

“Thank you.” Thomas tried to ruffle his son’s hair but couldn’t fit his hand through the crown. The prince laughed maniacally and added his own supplies to the table.

“Mr. Blue, you’re on measurements.” Roman pointed his sword toward the adult. “Dad, you’re on cutting. Purple…”

Roman tapped his chin as he thought. “Purple, you just do you. And I’ll do everything else.”

The group broke apart and started on each of their assignments. Logan carefully marked the circumference of his son’s head on the first piece of cardstock. He handed that off to Thomas who cut down the paper to a strip and another piece the same length but kept it at full height. Roman grabbed the two pieces and taped the ends so the strip would wrap around Virgil’s head and the larger formed a cone. He carefully slid the cone into the stip and tapped the two purple papers together. 

“Does this look okay?” Roman held up the hat for his friend. Virgil looked up from his torso where Logan was measuring and smiled at the creation. He gave a quick flick of his eyes to Roman’s left before going back to watching Logan’s hands.

Roman gave a chef’s kiss and went back to work on the other pieces that had been passed his way.

After convincing Roman to let them help, the group was quick to finish up the younger boy’s costume. A large purple tube was wrapped around Virgil’s chest just under his armpits while the cone hat was dropped onto his head. Roman added the last few pieces of tape and a couple more lines and squiggles before having everyone step back to admire his work.

Virgil pulled at his ears as everyone stared at him, but he looked perfect. Roman vocalized as much. Thomas added his own compliment and busied himself with cleaning. The purple boy stood in the middle of the living room. Over his purple hoodie was the cardstock tube decorated to look like a Crayola wrapper, the color was labeled simply as purple. His cone hat sat slightly crooked as the tip, a perfect point fresh out of a new box.

Roman clapped excitedly as Virgil dropped his hands. 

“Come on,” Roman beckoned then disappeared into the bathroom. “You gotta see it!”

Virgil blinked after his friend. “Blue,” Virgil whispered before also ducking into the bathroom.

Logan let out a drawn-out sigh. He was hoping that Virgil wouldn’t notice but his son was a sharp one and he reluctantly trekked upstairs to get into his costume.

Virgil was never one for mirrors but he allowed himself to stand in front of the big full body mirror that hung off the back of the bathroom door. As he rocked on his feet, his eyes darted quickly back and forth a few times. Slow enough to catch his costume but fast enough not to see himself. His rocking slowed as he got more and more pieces of the costume. His friend, who he had forgotten was there too, started clapping again. 

“Purple.” Virgil gently rubbed his hands up and down the Crayola logo. His head dropped as he watched himself trace the sideways letters. It was perfect. He wanted to wrap his arms tight around himself in a hug… but couldn’t do that. He wanted to tangle his fingers in his hair… but he couldn’t do that either. Instead, he flapped his hands and waved his arms around. Roman didn’t even mind a couple of whacks to his face.

Logan and Thomas stood on the sidewalk watching the purple crayon and prince walk up to the door. They were about halfway through the neighborhood and Logan could see Virgil starting to lose steam. The younger boy was starting to hide behind his friend. It wasn’t super obvious, he was still holding out his bucket when the door opened but he stood about a half step behind Roman.

“Trick or treat!” Roman smiled and held out his bucket.

The middle-aged man dropped a couple of random candies for Roman’s bucket. He gave a weird glance at Virgil before reaching back into his bowl.

“Good sir, do you happen to have any purple candies?” Roman hopped up to his tippy toes to peek into the bowl. “My friend is autistic.” 

The man lowered the bowl for Roman and gave Virgil another glance. “Two pieces.”

Roman happily dug through the bowl and chose a box of Nerds and a Jolly Rancher. He dropped the pair of candies into Virgil’s bucket. Some weird vibes were coming from the man but Virgil didn’t seem to notice too focused on nudging the new candy around his bucket. As they turned to leave though, Roman made it a point to flourish his sword. 

The pair trotted down to the next house to repeat the process. An older woman and her dog answered the door this time. The excited little dog nearly knocked Roman’s bucket over in its attempt to lick the human’s face. Roman giggled completely distracted. Keeping his head down, Virgil held up his bucket.

“And what are you dressed up as?” The woman dropped a bag of Halloween pretzels into the plastic pumpkin.

“Purple,” Virgil whispered as he petted the small dog a few times.

“What was that?” The woman pointed to her ear but Virgil was already walking back down the walkway to the adults.

Virgil found himself staring at his father’s shirt while they waited for Roman to come back. 

Logan was space. 

The teacher had ordered a custom shirt to ensure that the galaxy wrapped around his torso was real and accurate. He had chosen Messier 106, a spiral galaxy 20 million light-years away. Beautiful wisps of stars spiraled around its bright center as it faded from the dark black and blue of space to the pink and orange center.

The shirt was much louder than his normal wear and he felt very naked but Virgil seemed to love it. Even Patton said it was adorable and very much him when they had swapped costume pictures. Logan had originally interpreted it as compliments toward Virgil but Patton was quick to correct him. 

Logan was glad Patton wasn’t there in person with him, his face ended up getting beet red. After multiple message drafts of typing and erasing, he finally sent an awkward thank you and a compliment for Patton’s costume, one of those inflatable t-rexs. The kindergarten teacher’s selfie was with his class. A few of the kids were in their own mini t-rex costumes, emphasizing Patton as the loving dad-type that he was. 

Eventually, Roman dashed back down to the sidewalk. “She was such a cute dog,” he swooned before furiously rubbing the slobber off his face. 

“Let’s cross the street and we’ll start heading back.” Logan ushered everyone toward the curb. He didn’t want to stay out too late. After triple checking for cars, the group crossed the street and the boys raced up to the next house.

Logan clicked off his phone and let his head fall back. He let out a slow and tired exhale. Trick or treating had been good. Thankfully, there hadn’t been any incidents. Roman and Virgil were a good team. The older of the two always made sure that Virgil got candy that he liked, while Virgil used his version of puppy eyes to get more candy for them.

The father blinked up at the stars above him. After getting home and doing a small bit of trading, the Princes headed back home and Virgil got ready for bed. Logan was left alone to layout in the backyard on his galaxy blanket staring at the beautiful night sky. He folded his hands behind his head and whispered the names of constellations to himself as he found them.

One wouldn’t think that Halloween night would be ideal for enjoying the night sky, but as he lost himself in the bright gaseous orbs above him the ringing doorbells and shouting teenagers faded out. Out there, it was just him and the night. 

Calmness wrapped around him like a heavy blanket. And yet at the same time, he felt light, drifting up toward the stars he loved so much. He could leave the cramped small rock that was his home and explore the ever-expanding universe.

Something heavy dropped onto his chest. Logan found himself sucked back down onto the galaxy blanket, the closest to space he could be. Virgil was sitting crisscrossed facing him. He was fiddling around on his father’s chest. Doing his best to look down but not move, Logan saw that the weight was a flashlight pointing toward his feet. The young boy laid out a napkin, carefully unfolding it flat beside the light. Once the napkin was perfect, Virgil started pulling bags and bags of M&Ms from his too large hoodie.

Logan dropped his head back so his eyes caught the stars again. A smile stretched across his face as he heard bag after bag open and felt the candies hit against the napkin. He let his eyes drop closed. He may love space, but space didn’t have his son.


End file.
